New School Board’s Job: Course Correction

The prospect of rebuilding a dysfunctional engine is so daunting that most of us would rather junk it than face the frustration. So it is with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Every day seems to bring another breakdown, another discovered flaw.

The district’s long-standing problems are hard to ignore: low test scores, crowded classrooms, a paucity of books and too few trained teachers, not to mention, on some school sites, an infrastructure not linked to student outcomes and a labyrinthine web of financial systems too esoteric for all but a few to comprehend.

Before we dump the engine into the trash in disgust, however, let’s consider that we now have an opportunity to begin the real work of reform: building systems, strategies and leadership that are fueled by educational outcomes for the district’s 700,000 students--our real clients.

There is now a reform-minded majority on the board, a new element in the clamor to “do something about the district.” Given the opportunity, the board can lay the groundwork for the systemic transition the district must undergo.

When the new board members took office in July, both the old and new members together assessed the magnitude of the district’s troubles. The situation was even worse than we’d feared. The board is united in its determination to correct the district’s course.

Reform is an incredibly difficult undertaking. Yet as Ramon Cortines, who will be interim superintendent beginning Jan. 16, has stressed to all: “We have to make a start.” We have made that start.

In taking his new position, Cortines has the benefit of counsel from Ruben Zacarias, the current superintendent. Cortines and Howard Miller, the district’s chief operating officer, have formed a close working partnership, which is sorely needed--true collaboration at the leadership level. They have demonstrated new energy, drive and purpose.

We, as a board, must keep the focus of their work on integrating all aspects of the district’s businesses--instruction, budget and finance, health, safety, “books and bathrooms”--toward our only goal: raising student achievement.

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas recently suggested in these pages that the board of education, in its “quest for success,” be guided by a no-fault, positive approach toward fixing what is broken. He urged that we pay constant attention to consensus-building and collaboration.

Wise words, and welcome. Others have echoed that same sentiment. It is our hope that his comments and the words of others are heeded by the larger Los Angeles community. Now is the time for cool heads to keep our collective eyes on the mark--the hundreds of thousands of students who will be the beneficiaries of reform if it is permitted to take root and flourish. These children deserve that opportunity.

There is nothing more important to our community than to give all our students an excellent education. Graduating literate students is the prime motivation for this board of education, for its new leadership and its “stakeholders.” It must also be the prime consideration of those calling for tossing out the engine now, even before the mechanics roll up their sleeves and get to work.

We believe that we can transform the Los Angeles Unified School District’s tired, old educational engine into one with the power to take our students wherever they wish and need to go. It’s time to give change a chance.

The new majority on the board deserves the opportunity to tackle the problems it was elected to solve. Only then will everyone be able to measure the board’s successes or failures.